SLIM Brand Excellence 2019 Announced

On the 20th of June 2019 at a Press Conference held at the Hilton Residences, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing announced the launch of the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards 2019. Besides members of the media, the Press Conference was attended by marketing and business leaders from the fraternity. The participants were briefed on the process, rules, regulations and the agenda of this year’s SLIM Brand Excellence Awards campaign.

17 years ago SLIM introduced the very first award ceremony dedicated to recognizing and rewarding the best brands and brand custodians. Today the awards program, which began with a mere 26 entries boasts a record-breaking number of applicants every year. This is a testament to the growing popularity of the SLIM Brand Excellence event as a prestigious awards campaign that serves as a platform of development for brands, brand managers and entrepreneurs.

The primary goal of the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards campaign lies not in the awards, but in the need to develop strong brands by means of a robust process. The platform of SLIM Brand Excellence is built upon the platform structure by the late Professor Uditha Liyanage, an expert on the mechanisms of brands.

The campaign themed, ‘Catapult your brand…beyond!’ will reach its conclusion in November at the grand award ceremony, scheduled to be held at the Shangri La Hotel in Colombo. Special workshops will be held on the 27th of June for the education of the participants, while the closing date for entries will be the 19th of July 2019.

Just as in the previous year, SLIM Brand Excellence 2019 aims to increase focus on the SME sector by recognizing and motivating such brands in order to develop themselves at a national level and eventually enter the global community as well. The task of propelling local brands into the international arena has become the ultimate goal of the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards campaign following the revamp that the program underwent last year.

The judging panel will be made up of some of the country’s most respected professionals, who will follow a careful and precise evaluation process to determine the brands, brand custodians and entrepreneurs worthiest of recognition. Mr. Tilan Wijesekera, the Deputy General Manager of Retail Banking at Seylan Bank PLC, has been appointed as the Head of the Panel of Judges. “SLIM Brand Excellence this year will be a remarkable platform for many marketers and brands, especially considering the robustness and science that’s built into the awards process, which would no doubt add a great deal of discipline to our marketers’ thinking process in developing great brand journeys and outperforming the competition in challenging environmental conditions”, said Mr. Wijesekera.

Mr. Suranjith Swaris, the President of SLIM stated, “As a homegrown event by SLIM, the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards program serves as a ladder, guiding deserving brands, brand custodians and entrepreneurs into the national spotlight and eventually the global sphere. I am confident that this year’s organizing committee will take SLIM Brand Excellence to the next level and ensure the success of the entire campaign. We hope all our marketers who work with brands, particularly export brands and SMEs will utilize the SLIM Brand Excellence platform to further enhance their brand development skills and take Sri Lanka to the world, and thus serve as the backbone of our national economy”.

“SLIM Brand Excellence is a platform for local marketers to create, nurture and elevate brands. This is not merely an awards show, but a process that helps marketers craft a brand strategy across brand intent and content, which will eventually lead to brand performance.   We encourage brand marketers to embrace this well thought through process when designing their brand strategy, which itself is an important step towards winning the accolade; mind share of the customer. Furthermore, we will continue to focus on the SME sector through workshops and consultancy, which is extremely crucial for the country’s economic development. We are looking forward to a record-breaking number of entries this year, especially from the SMEs”, said Ms. Thilanka Abeywardena – Vice President – Projects.

“SLIM Brand Excellence has always been the pinnacle of brand success for Sri Lankan marketers. Subsequent to last year’s revamp of this prestigious program, SLIM Brand Excellence, is geared to take Sri Lankan brands into the global arena and challenge various boundaries. Especially taking into consideration the current context of the country, we need to facilitate many great brands to go beyond their realm, thus the awards and the campaign will focus on ‘Catapulting the brand Beyond!’” said Mr. Ahamed Aroos, the Project Chairperson of SLIM Brand Excellence 2019.